Furnace-stoker



(No Model.)

T. GBANEY.

FURNACE STOKEPL.

Patented June 29, 1886.

Fly. 2

Fly. 3

Zzveniar: Zinnia gang a4 THOMAS CEANEY, OF BAY CITY, MICHIGAN.

FURNACE-STOKER.

SPEQIL'FEGzhTION forming part of Letters Patent No. 344M531, dated June 29, 1886.

Application filed Oct iber 2.), 1885.

T0 aZZ whom it may 0077,06??? l Be it known that I, THOMAS Gummy, of Bay City, in the county of Bay and State of Michigan, haveinvented new and useful Iniprovemcnts in Furnace-Stoker's; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to a new and useful improvement in fuel-feeders for steam-boiler furnaces; and the invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combination of a boilerfurnace and grate so arranged that the quantity of fuel, together with the neces sary quantity of air for burning it. may be regulated.

in the drawings which accompany this specification, Figure 1 isa plan of the grate. Fig. 2 is a vertical central longitudinal section. Fig. 3 is an enlarged section of the grate.

A represents a feed-hopper provided at the lower end with a discharge-spout, B, which is controlled by the fecdrolls G. The feed-rolls are revolved by suitable motive power to dis charge the proper amount of coal required by the furnace. They are preferably of the kind known as crusher-rolls, so as to reduce at the same time the larger lumps of coal.

1) is the boiler-furnace, and J is a so-called endless chain-grate. This chain-grate is of suitable length to reach the whole length of the furnace and project some distance outside and below the feed-hopper. It is operated by suitable motive power and passes over sproeket-WheelsE E, one of which is in front of the furnace, while the other one is secured near the bridge-wall.

The chain-grate is composed of small gratebars lapping each other at the ends, so as to form air-spaces between them. They are pivotally secured together by pivot-rods to form a flexible apron or belt; but instead of making the grate in one breadth I preferably use two or more smaller breadths and place them side by side, so as to form the required width of Serial No. 181,953. (No model.)

the work of repairing and fitting together difficult.

Each sprocket-wheel is composed of a series of disks secured upon a common shaft. The cogs or spurs of each disk engage into the air spaces of the grate in their line of travel, and as there are as many disks on each shaft as there are rows of air-spaces the spurs of the sprocket-wheels will free all the airspaces from clinkers or ashes which may lodge therein, the spurs having about the dimensions of the air-spaces. The upper stretch of the gratebars is supported upon longitudinal bars P, which in turn are supported by transverse bars It.

F are a series of slats pivotally secured below the grate within the furnace-chamber in the manner of dumpingslats. They can be closed or opened at will or adjusted to any degree of opening, so as to cut off or regulate the amount of air which is admitted for combustion through the air-spaces of the grate. It is not necessary that these slats or cut-offs extend the whole depth of the furnace, as they may be omitted near the front end.

I do not want to confine myself to any peculiar method of operating these slats or cutoffs, as the nature of the fuel and of the draft and the absence or presence of other airfeeding devices has a bearing thereon-that is, they may be connected so as to be capable of joint operation in whole or in sections, or be independently adjustable.

The proper distribution of air for a perfect and well-regulated combustion of the fuel by means of devices which are susceptible of the same degree of adjustment as all the other parts of a mechanical stoker, has a most important bearing on the economy of fuel with this class of devices, as otherwise the fuel may be either dumped off the grate at the rear end only partly consumed or the combustion may be wastefully carried on only in the fore part of the furnace by not giving the .fuel the necessary time to coke and gradually give off its gases.

The amount of fuel dropped onto the grate can be regulated by adjusting the speed of the feed-rolls; but in order to obtain a greater regularity and a more even distribution of the coal upon the grate, I provide the furnace chamber with a vertically-adjustable door, G, which admits no more coal than its adjusted height will permit, at the same time it levels the coal and excludes the air.

As the arrangement of suitable mechanical devices for giving motion to the differentparts of my feeder does not involve any invention and can be suitably devised by any skilled mechanic, I omit all reference thereto, except tostate that I prefer to give the grate a slow, progressive, and continuous motion.

What I claim as my invention is 1. In a fuel-feeder, the combination of the following elements: an endless traveling grate projecting out in front of the furnace, a hopper with feed-rolls arranged to discharge thereon, a vertically-adjustable door in the front wall of the furnace above the grate, and a series of adjust-able air-regulating cut-offs below the grate in the furnace, all arranged substantially as. described.

2; The combination, with the endless traveling grate J, consisting of a plurality of sections arranged side by side and pivot-ally secured together, leaving air-spaces between the bars of each section, of the sprocket-wheels E E, having cogs corresponding in number with the air-spaces in one section of the grate and of substantially the same size, substantially as and for the purposesspecified.

3. In a fuel-feeder, an endless traveling grate, in combination with adjustable cut-offs arranged underneath thereof for regulating the supply of air to the the], substantially as described.

4. In a fuel-feeder, an endless traveling belt provided with air-spaces, as described, combined with the adjustable pivoted slats F, ar-

ranged beneath said belt for regulating the supply of air to the fuel therethrongh, substantially as described.

THOS, CRANEY. Witnesses:

H. S. SPRAGUE, GHARLEs J. HUNT. 

